Family Is More Than Blood
by CausticCanuck
Summary: Haran is an ARC Trooper. The men paint their armour gold. In Mandelorian it means vengence. At first she isn't sure why. Now she knows.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Starwars

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><p><span><strong>Aliit ori'shya tal'din-<strong> "Family is more than Blood" 

He's one of Vau's boys. The seething hatred for the Separatists boils deep and permeates everything he touches. She sees it now, in the things that he does… in the way that he interrogates the prisoners.

The Rhodian's face is beaten and bloodied. Thin streaks rip down his arms and Venrik wants to block the whole thing from her mind. But after then physical bleeding, he is still holding out, so she is there. The mental component to the operation. She gets the information in the end. She's the one who forces her way into his mind.

The next time it happens, she doesn't give Haran the chance. She forces her way into the Twilek's mind ripping past the barriers with cold calculation. She gets the information.

She feels herself tainted afterwards. Haran nods his head with cold detachment and approval in the mess. Their starting to make a good team.

He offers to teach her how to gut aihwia bait, or something along those lines, when she mentions her brief transfer to Kaliida Shoals to assist in the aiding of the injured clones. Her Mando'a is coming along slowly, so she just smiles and nods when he spits the words back at her, encouraging her to practice.

It's two months later and their in a fox hole, recently pinned down and separated from the rest of their battalion. They went out in a four man team, a frag mine took care of the tinnies, but took out the wrecked remains of their Lartie and supplies as well. It's been two days. Supplies are dwindling low.

They take shifts on watch. It's just past 14:00 hours local time, which on this rock, means that morning is another 17 hours away. Kot is resting in the back, Eights is breathing sporadically, and Venrik is't sure that he'll make it through the night.

Haran looks at her as she creeps her way behind him, quietly, in order to switch off. He turns to look at her, the helmet covered in dirt and smeared with red clay. It makes camouflage better, and helps them blend into the dirt. He reaches for his bucket and the seal breaks with a hiss as he hands it over to her. She catches an almost vulnerable tremor from him through the force, before it slams its way back down. She looks at him, surprise gaping on her face, before she clamps it down as well. He looks like hell. She knows that they both do. She takes the helmet, knowing that he wont sleep a wink without it on and whispers, "Vor entye." Haran shuffles back to the others and Venrik hears him roll around for a bit. His force presence is slightly comforting in the back of her mind, as she slips the bucket on. The night vision allows her to see for miles.

Another visit to Kaliida Shoals and then Coruscant and their two years into this bloody war. She hates the Seperatists as much as he does know. But it doesn't bother her as much any more.

Eights finally drops dead. In the end, his infamous luck ran out. He's had eleven close calls in the space of this war, and it's a ruptured appendix to far from a med facility that takes the soldier out. As a jedi healer, she does what she can to save him, but in the end, it's just to late.

She and Haran have caf one morning, in the mess. Their up in space again, and the war stretches on. They don't say much of anything. Haran wasn't much for words anyway. He slides a small yellow object over to her across the table. She looks down in surprise at the candy. Where in the Corellian Hells did he pick that up? He doesn't awnser her look of surprise so she doesn't ask. She learns later about a Mando named Skirata and how he looks after his men.

It's another month later and now she has a Padawan. The dynamic with the crew has changed and yet also tightened. He's a male Twilek, and his skin is forest green. The men call him Vor'ika. She smiles when Fi lets loose that this is short for Vorpan, the Mando'a word for green. She laughs out loud when Fi hints at the double meaning of the word, because the truth is that he's both, and far too young for this bloody war.

Vorpan questions her tactics one day. She does a mental scan of a prisoner without a second thought, and it scares her back to reality. It's been a long time since she's been around another Jedi.

The dynamic between her and Haran changes again. She questions herself when they meet together for their weekly (nightly) caf. She questions their tactics. He holds firm to his beliefs. She falters, and closes her eyes tightly, when he weaves his gloved hands through her own.

Vor learns quickly, the men teach him how to gut and clean local prey, something that they picked up from the locals on Rendili, odd as that was, for a colonized core world. Haran takes him under his belt, and teaches him to shoot and Niner teaches him how to install a new ion filter in the Lartie.

There's another battle where their pinned down. She leaves Vor, or rather Padawan Talveen behind. It's just too dangerous for someone that young and inexperienced. It's her and Haran, Kot and Shiny who prefers to go by his operating number. Stubborn and follows the Regs to the core, the boys have taken to calling him Rhetoric.

Rhetoric dies by a Weekay shiv. Haran guts the Weekay, but breaks his fingers joint by joint first. Venrick buries it all deep and just watches.

They find their target. Kot is uncomfortable, but steels himself and holds back the female's head as they water board her. Haran asks Venrick to keep her conscious in the force, and this time, she cracks, and walks out of the room. She hears the victim's screams through the thin wall. The target is thirteen.

Haran is an ARC Trooper. The men paint their armour gold. In Mandelorian it means vengence. At first she isn't sure why. Now she knows.

Vor'ika calls for her in his sleep. "Misha, Misha." She freezes. It's Twilek for mother. She reaches out and calms him with the force, sating his nightmares. She ignores the warning bells in her head against attachment, in truth, her adherence to the Jedi Code died a long time ago.

Haran kisses her. It's sweet and innocent, but then she remembers the way that they have both changed, and pushes him away softly. He looks crushed.

Haran fights harder now.

Order 66 happens. It's blood and blaster fire and carbon scoring, and their trapped in space. There is no way in hell off this cruiser. She barricades herself and Vorpan in a broom closet. She remembers what Haran did to the Weekay, and every other enemy of the Republic who has stood in his way. He's one of Vau's boy's and his very name is Mandelorian for hell. She quickly runs Vor'ika through with her green lightsaber. It's quick and painless, more of a mercy than he could have ever hoped to receive.

Haran finds both their bodies, but only after his men do. He spends the rest of the night in silence, and splices into his helmet's mainframe, deleting the searches for the ship's air vent plans, and his unrequested access to the escape pod's mainframes. He had come to late.

He deserts three months later, when they set down on Kessel. He searches for a man that he called Buir, once when he was a boy. He's one of Vau's boys and he's tired of living in Haran.


End file.
